


all of my faults are normal

by the_problem_with_stardust



Series: Sterek Week 2017 [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Bad Puns, Camping, Geology, Lab Partners, M/M, Puns & Word Play, Sterek Week, Sterek Week 2017, There's A Tag For That, more specifically field camp, sterekpartners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-25 19:06:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12539064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_problem_with_stardust/pseuds/the_problem_with_stardust
Summary: There are pink lines marked across the map. According to the key, the formation is the ‘Hipster Granite.’Derek sighs. “I don’t think that’s what Dr. Finstock meant when he said to name the formations”“But the granite was magma before it was cool.” Stiles carefully pencils in the trend and plunge of the fold hinge beneath them. “And besides. You called it ‘Pink Granite.’ That’s a zero out of ten for originality.”Written for Sterek Week Day 6: Partners in Crime





	all of my faults are normal

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to have like a plot and stuff, but instead it's a bunch of geology puns. I am so sorry.

“…and that means our final group for this project is Derek Hale and Stiles Stilinski.” Finstock sets his clipboard down on the hood of the van. “Please try not to kill each other.”

Each group is assigned to map a section of mountainside. At the end, Finstock will compare the maps side by side to see if the class managed to make a cohesive record.

It’s only three days. Derek can put up with anyone for three days. Hell, he was partners with Greenberg for the first project and survived. He takes a deep breath and picks up his day pack.

“Hey, there Derek.” Stiles falls in step beside him, hands gripping his backpack straps. “You planning on murdering me and leaving my body for the sheep?”

Derek sighs. “Let’s just do the project, Stilinski.”

The trek up the mountain is mostly silent. It’s rained the last couple days and even Stiles can’t run his mouth while also watching his footing on the slick slope. One would think that four weeks of this kind of weather would make Derek used to constantly being damp and tired. But it didn’t.

Once at the summit, Derek yanks his hammer out of his belt and Stiles extracts the giant Plexiglas mapboard he’d managed to wedge into his pack. Every geologist hates mapboards. They are ridiculously cumbersome and act like giant sails out in the open like this. But their maps are dry, so Derek can’t complain.

Stiles pulls several colored pencils out of his pocket and glances at the GPS unit hanging from his belt. He marks their position on the map and looks up.

“We’re waiting on you, man.”

Right. Derek takes a swing at the outcrop, hammer connecting with enough force to break off a piece.

Stiles picks up the chunk and looks at it under his hand lens. “It’s sedimentary, my dear Watson,” he declares in a terrible attempt at an English accent.

“It’s quartzite, dumbass.” Derek doesn’t even have to look at it to know it was metamorphosed. Sedimentary rocks are much softer, easier to break.

“God, you’re no fun.” Stiles flings the rock down the slope, which is against rule one of field camp: don’t throw rocks. “Why couldn’t I be partners with Scott? He appreciates my humor.”

Derek rolls his eyes and finishes the notes he’s making in his field book. Thank god for waterproof paper. “Let’s keep moving.”

Grumbling, Stiles shoves the mapboard back into his pack and follows. They’re up high enough to see out over the lakes dotting the valley floor. It’s a beautiful view and Derek is going to brag to Laura about climbing a mountain before lunch for the rest of his life. (Really, it’s just a baby mountain. But it still counts.)

The next few outcrops are streaked with granitic intrusions. After the third one, Stiles perches on a nearby fold hinge and balances his mapboard across his knees. Derek climbs up behind him to see how he’s recording the trends of the intrusions.

There are pink lines marked across the map. According to the key, the formation is the ‘Hipster Granite.’

Derek sighs. “I don’t think that’s what Dr. Finstock meant when he said to name the formations”

“But the granite was magma before it was cool.” Stiles carefully pencils in the trend and plunge of the fold hinge beneath them. “And besides. You called it ‘Pink Granite.’ That’s a zero out of ten for originality.”

Derek resists the urge to push the other man off of the outcrop. Hopefully Finstock won’t take points off for his partner’s smart-assery.

The rest of the day goes smoothly. Derek only has to keep Stiles from falling down a cliff-face once. The man needs to learn to look where he’s going. It’s amazing he’s survived this long as a geologist without succumbing to Darwinism.

After dinner, they transfer their points from the working map over to the final one. It’s a pretty good start and Derek is beginning to have some ideas about the geologic history of the area. Stiles is surprisingly helpful, spotting patterns that Derek definitely would have missed. Their thinking styles actually seem to complement each other.

\---

The next day dawns with dreary skies and more rain. Derek just tightens down the rain cover on his pack and keeps moving. Maybe if they finish early they can go back to the vans.

Stiles is unperturbed by the weather, splashing from outcrop to outcrop while humming an unfamiliar tune. He lingers on a quartzite that looks the same as the one on top of the mountain. There are a hundred reasons why these rocks at the bottom are the same as the ones at the top and Stiles seems ready to investigate all of them.

“Maybe there’s a fault somewhere so this section is repeated.” He squints at the map through the rain-spotted Plexiglas. “Or maybe the fold got folded again.”

“Or maybe there’s more than one quartzite member in this formation.” Derek tugs the mapboard out of Stiles hands and turns away from the mystery rock.

Stiles rolls his eyes. “You’re full of schist.”

Derek is too wet and cold to rise to the bait. Stiles looks strangely disappointed.

Around noon, the rain turns from a drizzle to a heavy downpour. Stiles finds an outcrop that offers shelter from the wind and most of the rain, dragging Derek behind him. They pull out their lunches, because if they aren’t going to work they might as well eat.

“Hey, Derek.” Stiles leans closer. “Why wasn’t the geologist hungry?”

“Stiles!” Derek shoves at his shoulder, keeping him from dripping on his sandwich.

He just hunkers down further out of the rain, already smirking at the punchline. “They’d lost their _apatite_.”

Derek sighs. They’re halfway through. He can do this.

\---

On the last day of the project, Stiles pushes his way through the crowd around the picnic tables and drops down beside Derek.

“So I was thinking we should go back to the top. Get some more points there.”

Derek shrugs, pushing his eggs farther away from his beans. “Sure. Whatever you want.”

Getting to the summit is much easier without the steady rain. Some of the mud even seems to be drying up. The sky is blue and the additional data they gather is exactly what they need to support their conclusions. Derek feels like there is nothing that can ruin his day. Until he feels the first drip of a bloody nose.

He’s about to dig through his pack when he remembers that he used all of his toilet paper the day before. There is no way he’s going to get through this without having to wear a jacket that looks like someone stabbed him for the rest of the trip.

“Here.” Stiles presses a wad of tissues into Derek’s hand. “I remember the structure trip. Harris thought you were dying.”

Derek tries not to laugh, keeping his head between his knees. That trip had been awful. They didn’t go until mid-November and by that point, camping outside was miserable. And the dry pre-winter air was not kind to his nose.

“Man that’s a lot of blood.” Stiles looks queasy. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Fine.”

They stay like that until the whistle blows. Stiles slings his pack on, then practically throws himself down the mountain. Derek follows at a more reasonable pace, realizing Stiles hadn’t made a single joke all day.

\---

“Hey.”

Stiles looks up from the double-decker Reese s’more he’s concocting. “Derek.” He makes no move to let Derek sit down.

Derek holds out the stack of papers. “We got our maps back.”

Stiles hums, looking at his creation with a calculating expression. There is no way he’s going to be able to fit that in his mouth. But if Derek knows anything, Stiles is persistent.

“I also…” Derek looks away. They’re isolated from the others right now, far enough away from the fire that Derek can’t feel the warmth. “I also wanted to say that I didn’t hate working with you.”

Stiles snorts. “Such glowing praise. Try not to inflate my ego too much, Hale.”

This is why Derek hates talking to people. He drops the maps and cross sections onto the ground by Stiles’ feet. “Never mind.”

“Wait.” Stiles catches his arm with his s’more free hand. “You’ve got that look.”

“I don’t have a look.”

“Yes. It’s your constipated ‘I can’t talk about my feelings’ look.”

Derek huffs in response to that, but sits where Stiles pulls him onto the log.

“Here.” He separates the mess of chocolate and marshmallow and graham cracker in his hands, offering half to Derek. “I’m not gonna be able to eat the whole thing.”

And that’s that. Stiles digs into his half, pausing to lick his sticky fingers. It’s obscene and Derek feels personally victimized to the point that he doesn’t even taste the pure sugar in his mouth.

Stiles snorts. “You don’t have to glare at me.”

“What?” Derek tears his eyes away from those stupid hands.

“I know that if you wanted to kill me, you would have done it when there were no witnesses.” Stiles looks thoughtful. “Or you could’ve just let me fall off that cliff.”

“It’s really just my face.”

“Sure.” Stiles leans in, swiping away some stray marshmallow clinging to Derek’s scruff.

He glances up through his lashes and Derek gulps, gaze flicking down to his lips. Stiles follows the movement, eyes going wide. Derek can see the moment everything slots into place.

“Wait a goddamn minute.” Stiles doesn’t look upset or disgusted. He looks _thrilled_. “Are you telling me that your murder face is actually your flirting face?”

Derek gets up, hoping to make a quick retreat to his tent where he can die of mortification. But Stiles is fast. He plants himself firmly in Derek’s path and jabs a finger into his chest.

“Nu-uh. No running away. Use your words, Derek.”

It takes a monumental effort to meet Stiles’ eyes. They’re hopeful and Derek realizes that maybe this could work.

“I want to kiss you.”

“Okay…” Stiles says slowly, still searching Derek’s face. “Is that it?”

“And maybe hang out more.”

“Like dating?”

“Whatever you’re comfortable with.”

Stiles grins, expression bright in the fading light. “I will date the hell out of you, Derek Hale.”

He tastes like peanut butter and marshmallow. It’s perfect.

\---

“Hey Derek,” Stiles whispers. “Psst. Derek.”

“Hmm?” It’s late; all of the tents around them are dark and silent.

“Why should you date a geologist?”

Derek groans. “Oh my god, go to sleep.”

“Because I know how to make your bed rock.” Stiles dissolves into quiet snickers, turning his head to muffle them in his pillow.

Derek rolls over, flattening him beneath his weight. Stiles goes still. “I really like you,” he whispers, breath ghosting against Derek’s neck.

“You’re not so bad yourself.”

“When we get home…” Stiles trails off.

“I’m going to take you on a gneiss date.” Derek pauses, waiting for Stiles to get it. “Because I really don’t want to take you for granite.”

Stiles’ answering laughter wakes up everyone nearby. But Derek knows that enduring the grumbling they’ll get tomorrow is definitely worth the soft kiss Stiles presses to his lips.

“I knew you liked my puns.”

Derek feels his cheeks grow warm. “I like _you_. Now go to sleep.”

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: gneiss is pronounced nice, idk if that's common knowledge or not (ive been among other geologists too long)
> 
> If you want, you can come see Sterek and/or some cool looking rocks on my [tumblr](https://theproblemwithstardust.tumblr.com)


End file.
